Mikulak scored 181.5 over two days of competition to retain his title. He is just the second person to win four straight U.S. national championships. Blaine Wilson won five in a row from 1996 to 2000. With the Olympics in Rio just two months away, though, Mikulak is already looking past this fourth title.

"I did good on three events the first day and then did really good on the other three events today. So I'm definitely there. I've got it all in me," Mikulak said Sunday. "It's nice to add another title in my belt but right now it's all about getting the next one."

Mikulak entered Sunday's final in second place behind Donnell Whittenburg, thanks in part to an out-of-bounds step on the floor exercise on Friday. But Mikulak was consistent all day Sunday, scoring at least 15.250 on every event but the high bar (14.700).

Chris Brooks, a Team Hilton gymnast with Mikulak and Whittenburg, didn't make it easy for Mikulak to defend his title as he pushed for another shot at making the Olympic team again.

"I think I made a good case for myself for at least an alternate position with these two competitions," Brooks said. "Now I have to go and continue proving myself as a worthy competitor these next two meets."

Brooks is familiar with being an alternate, having earned that spot for the 2012 Olympics in London. But at 29, Brooks is looking for more than that, seeing this as his last shot to make the Olympic team.

"I was just focusing on the last three events, because those are the hardest events for me to do," Whittenburg said.

Whittenburg, who...

HARTFORD — Halfway through the first round of the P&G men's national gymnastics championships Friday night, Donnell Whittenburg stopped looking at the standings.

"I was just focusing on the last three events, because those are the hardest events for me to do," Whittenburg said.

Whittenburg, who...

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"I'm a little more stressed this time because this is my last Olympic cycle," Brooks said. "So it feels like a little more pressure. But coming out of this competition doing what I was able to do, I'm a lot more confident."

Brooks briefly took the lead on Sunday following the fourth rotation, thanks to a big high bar routine (15.9) that gave him a slim 151.250 to 151.000 lead over Mikulak.

But the defending champ retook the lead after the fifth rotation with a 15.250 on the rings and held that lead through the final event to win the all-around. Brooks, though, took the individual title on the parallel bars (31.150) and finished second on the high bar behind Paul Ruggeri III (31.600).

"He's awesome. He's high energy and that makes him a fantastic teammate," Mikulak said of Brooks. "He steps up to the challenge and he doesn't let the moment get the best of him."

Ruggeri finished tied for eighth place with Marvin Kimble, just outside a guaranteed spot at the Olympic trials in St. Louis from June 23-26 that a top seven all-around finish ensured. The top seven were led by Mikulak and Brooks, followed by Jacob Dalton, Akash Modi, Yul Moldauer, Whittenburg and Sean Melton.

Dalton, a Team Hilton gymnast and member of the 2016 NCAA men's gymnastics champion University of Oklahoma, took third place on the day. Moldauer, Dalton's Sooner teammate and the NCAA all-around champion, finished tied for fifth with Whittenburg and Melton of Ohio State University. Stanford's Modi, who finished second in the NCAAs to Moldauer, came in fourth.

"It's incredible and it's really impressive because he's so young, so new to the scene and he came out here and dominated," Dalton said of Moldauer. "He had a great NCAA season, so he got a little bit of rest and he came back at it on fire. So it was incredible to see him do that."

Although Ruggeri and Kimble missed the top seven, they joined Eddie Penev, Alex Naddour, John Orozco and CJ Maestas in rounding out the 13 gymnasts going the trials based on their performance.

The final five gymnasts going to the trials (Donothan Bailey, Danell Leyva, Steven Legendre, Kanji Oyama and Brandon Wynn) were determined by the selection committee following Sunday's championship, making a total of 18 going to St. Louis.

"I think we all expected how intense it was going to be to make this team," Mikulak said. "Every guy has a strength in a different event. It's a big statement for how amazing any team we put together will actually be."